image of person or book cover 2599707903801804522.jpg
This image has been sourced from online
y separately published work icon The Min-Min single work   novel   young adult  
Issue Details: First known date: 1966... 1966 The Min-Min
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Across nearly two thousand miles of flat, sandy desert country runs a railway line, linking east and west Australia. Scattered along it are small groups of houses. Here the fettlers live, isolated from towns and other people, maintaining the line in the blazing heat.

At night, out of the blackness the min-min appears, an elusive and mystic light dancing on the horizon, beckoning and retreating. Aborigines tell of the wonder and excitement this small swaying light arouses. To Sylvie, a young girl living with her family at the siding, the gleam in the dark is symbolic of her life and future.

Her brother Reg, a "young rough", is frightened to stay at the siding after some of the mischief he causes. So he and Sylvie set off across the endless desert, carrying insufficient water and some bread and jam, walking under the scorching sun, in dust and wind, and facing icy nights.'

Source: 1966 publisher's blurb.

Notes

  • First written as an adult short story titled Sylvie. It won a short story competition in this form but was not published.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Lansdowne , 1966 .
      image of person or book cover 2599707903801804522.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online
      Extent: 206p.
      Description: illus.
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Angus and Robertson ,
      1967 .
      image of person or book cover 8091006491139452272.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 206p.
      Description: illus.
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Brown Land Was Green [and] The Min-Min Mavis Thorpe Clark , Sydney : John Ferguson , 1982 23494338 1982 selected work children's fiction children's Sydney : John Ferguson , 1982
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Hodder Headline , 1995 .
      Extent: 1vp.
      ISBN: 0733601987
      Series: y separately published work icon Starlight Rydalmere : Hodder and Stoughton , 1993-2003 Z1329409 1993- series - publisher children's fiction novel children's young adult
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Macmillan ,
      1969 .
      image of person or book cover 6602732662098428580.png
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 216p.
    • Port Melbourne, South Melbourne - Port Melbourne area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Mammoth , 1990 .
      image of person or book cover 3683712076915497145.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 233p.
      ISBN: 1863300627 (pbk.)

Works about this Work

Shifting Versions of Masculinity in Australian Children's Literature, 1953-1997 Beverley Pennell , 2001 single work criticism
— Appears in: Bookbird , vol. 39 no. 2 2001; (p. 6-11)
Pennell encountered significant change with regard to the concept of 'masculinity' in Australian realist children's fiction. She decided a major outcome of her research would be a literary sociocultural map of the shifting paradigms of gendered social relations in Australian society.
'You're a Failure as a Parent, Joe Edwards!': Reconfiguring the Male Parent in Australian Realist Fictions for Children 1966-1986 Beverley Pennell , 1999 single work criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , April vol. 9 no. 1 1999; (p. 31-40)
Pennell argues that 'within the constraints of their historical contexts, both The Min-Min and All We Know allow us to trace that desired shift in focus of patriarchy and hegemonic masculinity from insisting upon dichotomy and domination in gender relations to foregrounding a concern for the best interests and aspirations of girls and women' (40). She posits that in the context of the time in which they were written, they may be read as subversive and progressive in their problematization of 'hegemonic masculinity as privileged by Western patriarchy' (31), particularly in their reconfiguration of 'gendered social relations' in the domestic sphere' and the representation of male parents and parenting (31). This she considers as no easy task considering 'the traditional configuration of Australian masculinity is antithetical to all that is deemed 'feminine'' (31).
Representations of Mothers and Mothering in Contemporary Australian Children's Literature Margot Hillel , 1997 single work criticism
— Appears in: La Trobe Library Journal , Spring no. 60 1997; (p. 97-107)
The Outback: In Fear of the Bush John Foster , E. J. Finnis , Maureen Nimon , 1995 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Children's Literature : An Exploration of Genre and Theme 1995; (p. 71-86)
Novel Teachers : The Image of Teachers in Australian Children's Literature Mary Durrington , 1994 single work criticism
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , September vol. 9 no. 4 1994; (p. 5-8)
Novel Teachers : The Image of Teachers in Australian Children's Literature Mary Durrington , 1994 single work criticism
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , September vol. 9 no. 4 1994; (p. 5-8)
Representations of Mothers and Mothering in Contemporary Australian Children's Literature Margot Hillel , 1997 single work criticism
— Appears in: La Trobe Library Journal , Spring no. 60 1997; (p. 97-107)
Shifting Versions of Masculinity in Australian Children's Literature, 1953-1997 Beverley Pennell , 2001 single work criticism
— Appears in: Bookbird , vol. 39 no. 2 2001; (p. 6-11)
Pennell encountered significant change with regard to the concept of 'masculinity' in Australian realist children's fiction. She decided a major outcome of her research would be a literary sociocultural map of the shifting paradigms of gendered social relations in Australian society.
Mavis Thorpe Clark : Lover of the Sunburnt Country Walter McVitty , 1981 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Innocence and Experience : Essays on Contemporary Australian Children's Writers 1981; (p. 7-29)
On Accepting the Australian Children's Book Council's Book of the Year Award Mavis Thorpe Clark , 1967 single work criticism
— Appears in: Reading Time : New Books for Boys and Girls , July no. 27 1967; (p. 3-4)
Mavis Thorpe Clark explains the background to her award winning novel The Min Min
Last amended 26 Nov 2021 08:15:59
Settings:
  • Nullarbor area (South Australia), Far North South Australia, South Australia,
  • Nullarbor area (Western Australia), Southeast Western Australia, Western Australia,
  • Australian Outback, Central Australia,
  • Desert,
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X